The Wishing Way
by FunnyBunnyWarrior
Summary: The worlds are being destroyed by heartless and Sora, the keybearer, sets out to save them and his friends. Sora finds help in the form of four survivors of the destroyed worlds and a weak, failing Council. AU SoraXKairi
1. 1: A Survivor?

**CHAPTER 1: What a pretty, destroyed world you have!**

All of this is very experimental so bear with me. The canon characters do indeed appear later but not yet. They play a huge role in the story and will be given attention later. Promise. But for now, bear with me as I introduce a new cast. I would appreciate criticisms, thank you.

XXXX

There was a ringing in her ears, and in her dreams. It was faint, like a bell growing louder and shriller until its ringing became painful. Her head pounded, her teeth ground and she opened her eyes, coming so slowly from a quiet dream.

And she met only another, equal quiet. It wasn't a dream, it was reality. How utterly sad. She blinked away the sleep, her mind still half dreaming as she glanced into, up, and all about herself, looking searching but only finding blackness.

She lay down on her back, sprawled across the ground and kept her eyes shut so hard they hurt. Don't move, don't breathe and don't think.

Her head moved right, her eyes opened and she stared for a long moment into absolutely nothing but darkness. She looked left and saw more darkness. Nothing, she thought, nothing. Nothing meant everything was dead. So very dead. Death wasn't pretty, death wasn't exciting, death hurt. It all hurt around her heart.

What did her mother always say about death? Something about how boring it'd be compared to how colorful life was? Or was it the other way around? Or was it not?

Who was her mother? What face did mother have? She had a pretty face, a beautiful face with…or was it an ugly face?

She had dog, didn't she? Or was it a cat? Or dolphin? Was it even legal to own a dolphin?

She stared into the dark. A memory slipped by, out of sight, out of mind and then another, and then another until they all glided away. Her brain felt so numb, so empty yet strangely, it felt clean.

Yet she had lost something. Something so big, so real, so important…but what was it? Her clean brain wouldn't say a thing; it simply gave her more questions.

Lying there, thinking her frustratingly clean, empty thought, she suddenly thrashed her limbs, dug her fingernails into her cheeks and cried, cried for everything her heart felt for.

A light fell on her and into her eyes as she blinked it away. It was a clean white light, a pretty light.

"Shush!" She heard a voice yell above her crying. "You're high pitched little girl voice shall be the death of these ears of mine. I swear, people these days…don't enjoy silence in the least."

She paused, turned silent, and looked above herself and then she could only whimper, confused, when all she saw was a strange, pudgy man in pure white pants and shirt, his stomach overhanging it all. He sort of tilted his head, sighed, rolled his eyes, did all sort of things people do when they're bored and irritated at life.

"Stand." His pudgy hand motioned up as he spoke in the flattest and most tired of voices.

She stood, shaking on her legs and staring blankly through the bright, with light. It came from a gem in the man's hand, his other hand he held a notepad with a silver pen dangling by a leather string.

"Why are you alive?" He asked.

"Wh-what?" was all she could manage to say.

He sighed dramatically, rolling his eyes and head. "I said," he began louder, "Why are you alive?"

She blinked. "I don't understand!"

The man hit his head with his notebook. Obviously, he was not accustomed to dealing with frustration.

"Who are you?" She asked, her words rushing from her mouth. She didn't know exactly what she wanted to ask, even though she knew it had to be something. She figured that this was a start.

The man glared at her side long, holding his notepad to his fat chest. "I am," he began importantly and he almost didn't seem very, very bored but simply bored which was always a good thing. "Remnare Oletharne Telqueness of the Fifth Order of the World Council." He pointed at her. "And you should be dead."

"You're Remnare? Okay, help me! I don't get what's going on. I don't remember a thing and this place is dark and cold and if I want my mommy except maybe I don't have a mommy and I don't remember a thing and—"

"I am not Remnare!" he snapped impatiently. "I am Remnare Oletharne Telqueness of the Fifth Order of the World Council!"

"Look." She said tearfully. "I don't know what is going on! Just explain it to me!"

Remnare sighed. "You want to know what's going on? I suppose you would, I personally wouldn't but no matter, I guess. Alright, by the law of the council, the very same council by which I kiss butt and hope for goodies, lots of hopefully not brown goodies, I must tell you that we are very sorry for your loss, it wasn't our fault, for love's sake don't seek revenge on us, yadda yadda yadda."

"Oh…okay," She said, not sure what to say. "I don't really get what's going on still. But okay."

"Memory lapses?" Remnare said, nodding. "Yes, happens to all survivors I guess. It's for the best, really, memories are painful most people find. You have not totally forgotten everything and I pity you for that. You'll remember in spurts."

"Happens to whom?" She asked.

"Survivors," Remnare said.

"A survivor? Of what?" She said. "Of what? What? Something big? …am I dead!?"

'"Don't you know?" He said. "The council is sorry to say that your world was destroyed. You stand on what is in the place of a real world. You currently stand on the remnants of nothing. That's why it's so dark and cold. It's just a temporary place holder until I, I mean the Council decides what type of world needs to be made in its steed. I just make notes on the destruction. As the sole survivor and since I sort of, kind of, really don't care about your opinion what sort of world should we put here. Corporate world? Or a play world? Maybe an ice world?"

"Everything? Gone?"

"Gone." He said. "You should be, too. Trust me; it'd make my job easier"

"So dead…" she said. "Oh no. Oh no. Did you kill them? Did you!?"

"No girl, we do not kill anyone." Remnare replied heatedly. "We record and, we build. The heartless destroyed your world. Oh, the destroyers, like that damn Organization of something idiotic, try to create new worlds but, happily, those worlds are only virtual. Wouldn't want those punks getting in on our business. We create the worlds, us, not those idiots." Remnare heaved a sigh that seemed to come from his toes. "I digress, though. I suppose we must now figure out what to do with you, seeing as how you didn't die. So, who are you?"

"I'm—" She stopped. No name came to her in her empty brain. "Um…I don't know."

"Marvelous," He said sarcastically "Marvelous. Now unless your name is I don't know—at which case I must ask why your parents hated you so much or what they were drinking—I have to involve that harridan into this. Issbelle!" he yelled, one hand tapping the silver pen against the edge of the notepad.

She looked at Remnare and then behind her and she saw a woman step into the light. The woman was tall, thin with long, disproportionate legs, and black hair shaved right up to the skull. She wore a frown on her thin lips and puffy cheeks. Her legs were long, almost disproportionately so. Her hair was black and, shaved close to her skull. She brushed her white shirt off, then her white pants. "What is it?" She snapped

"This is it!" He replied angrily, ushering towards the girl.

The woman looked tired as she slowly looked towards her. "It didn't die." She stated.

"The world did but this thing-" he once again ushered towards the girl once more, "didn't."

"What are you called?" Issbelle asked, bending down to look in the girl's eyes. "Remnare, record this."

Remnare coughed. "I am Remnare Telqueness of-"

Issbelle glared at him. "Dammit! You are Remnare! If you want to play that stupid game then you will have to call me by _my_ full name."

"But your full name is so long-" Remnare began

"Yes, yes, I know." Issbelle said, turning so that she could see the girl in the eyes. "What is your name?" She asked again. "Or do you not remember the stupid thing?"

It was a cold, fixed minute that Issbelle took to give the girl a cold, little look.

"I don't remember," she said. "I mean, I sort of remember, sort of. Sorry, sorry…"

"You need a name then," Issbelle said. She looked at Remnare. "She needs a name."

"Pigeon," Remnare said. "She shall be Pigeon."

"Whatever. As long as you can write it on paper then fine," Issbelle said.

"Athnee," the girl replied.

"Is that you're real name?" Issbelle said.

"No. But it sounds pretty," Athnee said. "But I could be Pigeon if you really want…isn't a pigeon a bird. Funny I remember that now…"

"Your biological sex, if you have one." Issbelle said.

"Female," she said.

"Whoo," Remnare said. "Girl power! Not…"

"Shut up and write, Remnare. Athnee, tell us your age," Issbelle said.

"Sixteen." The girl answered.

"Centuries?" Remnare asked, looking up from his notepad, the pen stilled just above the paper.

"Centuries...?" She said. "Ugh. No, no. Years."

"Hmmm..." He quickly scribbled something over.

Issbelle bent down, looking Athnee eye-for-eye as she grabbed Athnee's face, held it tight and forced her head to right and left, examining each side as Athnee's eyebrows furrowed. "She has a type four nose, though the upward curve of her nose bridge almost makes it a type five. Her cheekbone is a type seventy-four except it isn't pointed too much so I suppose that makes it a type seventy-four one-half and seventy-five—" Issbelle continued onwards, Remnare recording it all as fast as Issbelle could speak.

Finished, they both peered at Athnee. Athnee hated those looks they gave her, she hated the way they watched her. She looked away, scratching an imaginary itch on her cheek.

"Does the girl have a heart?" Issbelle asked.

Athnee gently brought her index finger towards her neck, laying it there. There it was, she felt, the gentle beat of her heart. She removed her hand. "Yes, I have a heart." Athnee said.

"I was not talking to you, girl!" Issbelle snapped.

Remnare scratched his head. "A heart. I can not rightly say."

"But-" Athnee began, "I _do_ have a heart! I can feel it beating!"

Issbelle slapped her forehead with her hand. "_Not_ that type of heart!" She said.

"But-but-" Athnee tried to say, but her words were caught in her throat as she looked up at Isabelle's angry face.

"Shut up, girl! Allow me to converse with Remnare in peace!"

Athnee took a turn at silence and did nothing but silent things, such as look at things, like Issbelle and Remnare and darkness and more darkness.

"I suppose we'll have to bring her before the Council. I hear that there have been a few others whom have survived despite these...circumstances." Remnare coughed. "We'll take her to the World Council, I suppose."

Issbelle sighed, sighed so deep as to show how utterly and dramatically frustrated she was. "I suppose so. I'm just tired of supposing." She said, looking about herself slow and moving slower. Everything about her seemed so sluggish, and her glazed eyes showed a woman who was exhausted.

"I suppose." Remnare said distantly as he continued to scribble words into his notepad.

Issbelle groaned. "Can't we just leave her?"

"I don't like being alone," Athnee said. "Please, I don't like this dark, I don't like this place. Don't leave me. Don't leave me. Stay, stay please!"

Issbelle gave her a harsh look before looking away, towards Remnare. I suppose we will send the girl before the council. Who knows, she could prove herself capable as the others."

Remnare shrugged. "I highly doubt it."

"Capable of what?" She said. "What am I capable of?" Something came into her clean, little mind, a memory, she realized. "That's right! I am good at math and science and...some non-physical sports like bird watching. But I'm a really good spectator for everything! See I'm capable!"

Remnare sighed. As if this were her cue, Issbelle responded, "You're capable of nothing but talking! Now shut that poor, unfortunate and overworked mouth of your and, for my sake, spare our ears of that voice of yours."

Hurt, Athnee slowly clenched her teeth beneath her closed lips. She winced. What could she say to that? She knew that if she talked she would invariably end up saying something less than stunning. But she talked, anyway. "...But I am capable..." She pursed her lips.

Issbelle snorted; a half smile on her lips. "Yes, yes, because the one thing this organization needs is as follows: more fools, idiots, Remnares and bird watchers."

"I think I take offense to that," Remnare said.

"Of course you do," Issbelle said.

"You never know." Athnee murmured, closing her eyes, so tired, so sleepy, so empty. Here she was, this empty girl with such a squeaky clean brain with not a memory in it, standing there before these people. How sad. Why'd she hate herself so much then?

"Open your eyes girl and, answer me!" Issbelle said. "Are you coming with us or not?"

Issbelle's words died before they even reached Athnee's ears. None of this was real. None of this was real, she kept chanting in her mind. This is not real. The pain is not real. The air caught in her throat. She didn't breathe for she was striving to die. She probably wasn't even real. She didn't want to live. There was no point. Athnee felt so sad and she couldn't remember why but a sad part of Athnee told her to just die, to stop breathing.

Her head became light and empty, she felt dizzy and her face began to get hot as her body temperature rose, her palms becoming moist, throat becoming tight. She could see Remnare and Issbelle talking but she didn't hear them say a thing. Her vision blurred and Issbelle and Remnare lost focus, every color becoming gray and black at the corners of her vision. Then, it all became black and her mind empty as she fell towards the ground, her knees giving in.

Issbelle blinked, wondering what was wrong with the pathetic girl. Her look darkened when she noticed Athnee lying on the ground. She bent down and clutched the girl's shoulders, her grip so hard that she knew that she would leave behind ten small indentions. She moved her arms forwards and back, furiously shaking the girl back to conscience.

"You are making matters worst." Remnare said lazily; watching everything with glazed, exhausted eyes. He seemed to still be recording, his pen leaving trails of dark ink in its wake. "When someone faints you don't want to shake them. It can—"

"Shut up!" Issbelle spat, breaking Remnare's sentence. She continued to shake Athnee, her voice hushed as she ordered under her breath, "Wake up, stupid girl. WAKE UP!" Towards the end of her sentence, her voice became less hushed, nearly a shout.

Athnee slowly came around. Her face was flushed, devoid of color. She felt lethargic; her body seemed heavy to her, her limbs hard for her muscles to move. She could feel her heart beating wildly in her chest.

She began to feel her heart beating slow. Her mind became clearer. Her brain became more receptive to what she saw.

Issbelle backed away and stood. "I can already tell that you will be more trouble than you are worth!" Issbelle said.

Athnee sat up, pulling herself off the ground. She stared at Issbelle with wide eyes. "What?" she asked.

"Stupid girl," Issbelle stated huffily. "Get up."

Athnee stood, her knees shaking, her legs felt unstable.

"Issbelle," Remnare began, looking up from his notepad. "When you were shaking the girl, should I describe it as vigorous or slow? I forgot how it went."

Issbelle shrugged. "Be vague," She replied. "The Council has no rules against that. Or you could describe it however the hell you want. If they catch you on it later, say that it's a matter of opinion."

"Alright." Remnare said, scribbling. "I'll describe it as stupidly."

Issbelle glared at him, her face scrunching. "Remnare," She began, her voice was low and slow. "Just because the Council won't catch you on that obvious lie, doesn't mean I won't. I suggest you change it to something more fitting."

"Lie?" Remnare snorted. "But you are right. From a vocabulary standpoint I really must change it. How about negligently?"

"How about not." Issbelle stated flatly.

"You were never one for vocabulary...or language...or higher thinking..." Remnare smiled mockingly. He contemptuously tapped his pen on his temples, as if he were pondering deeply. "I suppose that must be why you weren't chosen to be a scribe."

"Remnare, I warn you." Issbelle said softly, between clenched teeth.

"You are not even good enough to record events of the worlds. Very much sad, really. To lose such a fabulous job to me…

"Shut up, Remnare! They chose you for that position on the sole basis that you would be useless everywhere else."

Remnare's smile turned from mocking to tired. "You are not possessing of people skills either, I see."

Athnee watched silently, too scared to speak. How could these two survive if they argued like this? She would have expected those whom recorded and created worlds to be less human, more alien. But they weren't. They fought, breathed and lived like a human. Perhaps, when the glory lost luster, life and all was said and done, this job really was boring.

Yet, here they stood, on a world that once was, arguing, fighting. It was her world, Athnee's world, and they didn't care. They simply fought harder, bit worse.

"Excuse me." Athnee began in a very small voice that somehow failed to express her anger.

Issbelle turned towards her. "What?" She hissed.

"How-How-" She said. "Never mind."

"Say it, girl!" She barked.

"How-Why," Athnee sighed. "How can you not get upset over...this...?" She weakly motioned to the everything around her, to the darkness and to the world.

"Easy. I just do," Issbelle said. "Unlike you, worthless girl."

"I'm not worthless..." She tried to strain her voice so that it sounded less squeaky, more determined. But in that bleak little none world, with all of her memories gone but all of her sadness very much there, her voice could be nothing but squeaky.

"You are only a living, breathing outlier on my statistics chart. You should be dead with the rest." Issbelle said.

"But I live! I'm a person, you know. I'm a person..."

"I did not deny that." Issbelle said..

"I'm-I'm-" Athnee paused. "I'm more than what you think I am. I really am!"

"Prove it." Issbelle replied.

"I prove it by being born." Athnee stated.

Issbelle snorted derisively.

"High aspirations you have for yourself there." Remnare said.

"I have feelings." Athnee said, her voice so desperate.

Issbelle bent down so that she was eye level with the girl. Her gaze was stony, perfectly emotionless and deeply contrasting to Athnee's wild, doe eyed look. "And you think that makes you somehow _special_?" She jerked herself away. "Remnare," Issbelle said. "This naïve little twit won't last a moment when presented before the World Council. We should do her a favor and leave her. Let her die here as she should've"

"Ah but you forget, you terrible harridan, that nobody does well when presented before the council. Especially..." Remnare stopped, allowing the word to hang in the air.

Issbelle scowled. "Don't you dare finish that sentence!"

"Especially you, Issbelle." He went on to say. "Don't you remember when they denied you as a scribe? What were the words they used?" He paused. "Oh yes, they said that you were a 'convulsed, antagonizing, bitter, artless, boorish representation of all we detest'" Remnare stopped, tapping his pen against his temples. "I can't say I don't agree with them."

With a tightened jaw, furrowed brow and clenched teeth, Issbelle gave Remnare a look that made Athnee shiver.

"I suppose you do fine in your current position…" Remnare said. "As well as a potent fool can."

"Oh. Ha ha. Bastard," Issbelle said. "A bastard who feels big and bad because he writes a few things down in a sad little book. Come on. No time for this. Let's get back to the Council with this little twit and be done with her."

Remnare nodded, smiling, fumbling with the lighted crystal in his hand. "One moment," He said. Something clicked. "There. One moment. Teleporting can be quite the disorientating experience."

The darkness filled with light and nothing but light until everything was so white that it hurt. Athnee, more than disoriented, fainted.

XXXX


	2. 2: To Great Adventure and Assured Doom!

Again, this is a very experimental fanfic. Take it for what it is and that is simply an alternate look at the game of Kingdom Hearts. It doesn't stick closely to the original game at all. We've all played through the original game and, personally, I don't want to have to write it word for word, event for event. I'd rather write something new and different that still sticks to the spirit (not necessarily everything else) of the original game. Indeed, this fanfic is simply a stretching of the Kingdom Hearts Universe into something a little different but still the same, in a way.

**Disclaimer:** No, I don't own the Kingdom Hearts Franchise.

XXXX

"Look at that! She's waking up." A voice with a face Athnee couldn't see said. It was a cheery girl voice, one that was probably always accompanied by a smile.

"So she's not dead?" Another faceless voice—one that sounded like a man's— said. "Dammit. Here's your money, Eelee. But, just so you know, I'm never making another damn bet with you _ever_ again."

"Bets aren't wise. Make you lose, often, often. You can lose everything to a bet, so quick like, so fast," A faceless said, but this faceless voice must have been a woman, even if her voice was deep and dull.

"Yeah, I know, El, yeah, this is me, knowing and not caring," The man's voice said. "I mean, not that I don't care about your opinions, El."

"What about mine, Keith?" said the first girl's cheery voice.

"Go to hell, Eelee," said the boy's voice.

Athnee's eyes opened, slightly at first, and she blinked away blur. Then her eyes snapped wide, she held her breath and looked upwards to see three faces crowded over her. One face a blue-eyed girl with shimmering pink lips—Athnee, a fan of lip gloss herself always recognized it when she saw it—and blonde hair pulled into a braided bun, the other a tanned girl with cropped, short brown hair and black eyes and the last a bored looking boy with dark blond hair and brown eyes.

"Can I poke it?" Eelee said. "Hee. That would be fun."

"Can I stab it?" The boy said.

The short haired girl simply cocked her head, staring down at Athnee, who stared back. "Scared? Probably," the short-haired girl said. "Don't be scared. Be okay. Shhh. It's okay."

"Hey, newbie, welcome to the club," The boy said. "How's it feel being the total newb in the place?"

Athnee sat upwards, clutching the blanket to her chest, stared the boy straight in the eye and asked, "Who are you?"

"He's Keith," The blonde-haired girl said. "And I'm Eelee. It means blessed, sacred, beautiful water flower where I come…excuse me, _came_ from. And she's—" She gestured to the short haired girl—"El, short of Elori. Don't ask why we shortened a perfectly short name to an even shorter name. It was, of course, Keith's idea and I just follow along."

"Bull. You never listen to me, woman!" Keith said.

"Don't yell, Keith. That's rude," Eelee said.

"Where am I? What's going on?" Athnee said, seemingly withering away in confusion.

"You know how long we waited for you to finally wake up?!" Keith said. "Forever, it seemed. We all sat in here, waiting for you to finally open those pretty little eyes of yours."

"You watched me in my sleep?!" Athnee said.

"Yeah, well, you know what, honey," Keith said. "As weird as that may be, it's not our fault that you're the most interesting thing here. I hate the Council. They're cheap! Before El got here Eelee and I had to share a bed—and yes that is wrong and nasty and vile! But nothing ever happened— until she _made _me sleep on the floorbecause the Council—may they die—was too cheap to get two beds! Then we got two beds, finally, and then El came and they wouldn't give us three! Now, we've finally got three beds but you're here so we need four. Brilliant. That Council is just brilliant."

"Here would be the World Council Building. First Order, second floor, Survivor's Quarters," Eelee said.

"It's all gone," Athnee said. She heard nothing around her, not a voice, not a shuffle of feet because, just then, all she could think was words like gone and dead and lost…forgotten. "That's right. It's all gone…and I'm still confused. Where is it? Oh, now I don't even know what's gone. Confused, I don't get this. Stop confusing me."

Eelee sat down, beside a shivering Athnee and laid a hand on her shoulder. "It's alright. We're all survivors here. We know what it's like to have your world totally destroyed."

"Council come to my world," El said. "All black and black. The atmosphere was dark and black but the Council wore white."

"Yeah, you're a real survivor, El," Keith said. "Eelee, however, ain't."

"So what if I had my momma had connections to the Council?" Eelee said. "I still survived."

"By what? Your mommy?" Keith said. Yeah, if you're mommy hadn't been working with the Council at the time, you would have died with your world. El and I were tough enough to get out alive. Even the newb, for crying out loud, was tough enough."

"I may not be a warrior or fighter or whatever like you and El," Eelee said. "But I am _not _someone for you to underestimate and punch around, Keith."

"You talk, girl, that's all you got," Keith said.

"She talks well. Makes people listen to her and does her magic," El said.

"Who listens?!" Keith said.

"I listen," El said.

Eelee stuck her tongue at Keith. "Na. Told you."

Athnee sat in the covers, sat on the bed, shivering as she was in her thoughts, her confusion. "What next?" She found herself saying.

They all turned to her, surprised as if they had forgotten she was there until she opened her mouth.

"Oh, that?" Eelee said. "That's up for the Council to decide. They're actually debating whether we should keep you on as a survivor or not. You would live with us three and I think that would be nice. Or they could deny you. But I honestly doubt that. It just wouldn't be good sense. They need all the survivors they can get. At least they figure out exactly how we survived having our worlds gobbled up by heartless. "

"So I'm a survivor," Athnee said. "That means I'm not dead." She started jumping a bit from where she sat. "I'm not dead! I'm alive!"

"…" was the collective reply.

"No, you're not dead," Eelee said, slow. "Why would you think you were dead?"

"Everything was just so dark and scary. I'm really scared of the dark. And I was alone and then these people came and they…and they…Funny, I don't remember."

"Was there a tall woman with them?" Eelee said.

Athnee closed her eyes, rested her head back against the headboard and thought. "Yeah."

"That was my mom!" Eelee said.

"Oh!? She was…?" Athnee stopped. "Sort of nice, especially when she shook me awake when I fainted and then when she yelled at me! Um...actually that was sort of not nice but I think she must've said something nice. Nobody can be all mean, right?"

"I hate that woman, I hate that woman. I hate her with a damn, hot, red hot, in the fire passion. If she died tomorrow I would laugh." Keith said.

"My mom's not that bad, Keith," Eelee said. "She's nice enough to me, at least. Beside, being a little prickly is just her." She shrugged. "I don't let it get to me."

"Whatever," Keith said. "So, what's-your-name—" Keith began.

"Athnee," Athnee said. "I'm Athnee. Um. And you're Keith."

"Greeeaattt," Keith said. "Well, Athnee, I'll just have to put that in my great big book of things I don't care about. Give me something else to put in my I Don't Really Care book and answer me this; What skills you got?"

Athnee froze, clutching her blanket. She was a great bird watcher, should she mention that? Or maybe she should mention her skill in spectator sports? Her memory was so spotty that that was all she really remembered. "I…I really like bird watching and I'm good at it so is that helpful? And I'm good at anything to do with watching."

"That's it?" Keith said.

El, leaning against the wall, arms crossed, looked up from the floor and to Athnee. "Train you. We will train you. Train you well. Be like Keith and me." She looked at the ceiling. "Be strong like Keith and me. Fight like us. Or you be like Eelee."

"Fight?" Athnee said. "Does that involve hurting people? I can't do that!"

"Oh for the love of all," Keith said. "It's heartless you fight not people."

"Heartless?" Athnee said; her voice unbelievably tiny.

"Evil critters," Keith said. "They go rawr and suck your heart out with a bendy straw. Ooh. Fear them."

"I'm not tough!" Athnee said. "I guess I can admit that. I wouldn't be any good fighting stuff…"

"Hold on now," Eelee said. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. We still have to wait for the Council's decision."

"They'll say yes, why the heck would they not?" Keith said. "And even in the off chance they say no, well, great. Newbie's screwed, we're not."

"What's a newbie?" Athnee said. "That's a really weird word."

"Someone who asks a lot really stupid question," Keith said.

"I'm not trying to ask stupid questions," Athnee said. "I just don't know this stuff!"

"It means you're new, that's all," Eelee said. "Don't worry too much over it. It's such a small thing and you'll find Keith will say a lot of things you probably need to punch him out for but in the name decency don't."

"I don't think I would punch him out anyway, decent or not," Athnee said. "I mean, it just isn't right. But if you want to, I will try not to mind and it's just my opinion so please don't—"

"Oh no," Keith said. "The newbsters a welcome mat. Can my day not get any better?"

"What do you mean by that?" Athnee said. "I mean, is it mean?"

"I mean, is it mean? Is it like the opposite of nice?" Keith mocked mimicking Athnee's rather high and girlish voice. "I like so need to know!"

"I don't think I talk like that…" Athnee said.

"Keith, shush. Silence. Quiet. Whatever works for you just shush," Eelee said.

"Fine," Keith said, leaning on the wall next to El, crossing his arms. "I'll just stand over here with my buddy El."

El stood as she had before, as if he weren't even there and she couldn't even hear him.

Eelee rolled her eyes but grinned and looked at Athnee. "Don't worry. All we have to do is wait a little wee bit before the Council makes a decision. They don't have the attention span to have long meetings, you see…"

The minutes passed, everyone in the room stared at each other. El never moved, not even by an inch, as if she had fallen asleep. Keith, beside her, twitched and fidgeted and Eelee sat on the bed, trying her best not to fidget. Athnee just stared at the ceiling.

There was a knock on the door. Eelee and Keith jerked themselves forward and fought over who would answer the door. Eelee elbowed Keith out of the way, opened the door and smiled.

"Mom!" She said. "How good to see you!"

Issbelle stepped in, bending over to fit through the door. She stood in the middle of the room as everyone stared. Even El lifted her head somewhat to watch.

"Athnee stays," Issbelle said. "All of you pack your stuff. And be quick!"

"But, mom," Eelee said. "Why do we have to pack our stuff? Where are we going?"

"Yeah, woman, where are we going?" Keith said. "We haven't ever been anywhere before."

"And now you are because we, The Council, say you are," Issbelle said. "Now, do you want to fight about it, Keith, or listen to me?"

He didn't answer.

"We're sending you off with a mission, don't complain," Issbelle said. "We've been meaning to get you brats on a mission for a while. It's just the Council hadn't known exactly what until now."

"Okay, what?" Keith said. "Why?"

"Because the worlds are connecting, disconnecting or something like that, heartless are destroying them, we're having a really hard time making any new ones and everything's going down the crapper?! There's your explanation. Happy?" Issbelle said. "So we're sending you kids out to find the key."

"What key?" Keith said. "Dammit if you people are just sending us off to find your house keys or whatever I, for one, will be thoroughly pissed."

Issbelle rolled her eyes, sighing. "Oh shut up! Shut up! You're going and you'll listen to us and you'll like it! Actually, I don't really care if you like it as long as you obey."

"Dictator," Keith said.

"Idiot," Issbelle said. "Now get going, get packing. We something that can get you to the worlds you need to go to. It' a ship. I heard it was called a Gummi Ship somewhere. What a stupid name…"

"I still don't know what key you're talking about," Keith said.

"I know!" Eelee said, jumping up and down and raising her hand.

"By the way," Issbelle said. "I trust you'll take time out of your Council-funded schedule to train Athnee?"

"No," Keith said.

"Yes," El said. "Make her fight excellent. Good. Fight Good."

"You're still having trouble with our language?" Issbelle said.

"Learning, trying, get good, best someday," El said.

"Aw. Don't be mean, mum. She's trying," Eelee said. "Now come on guys! Adventure and assured doom await us!"  
"I still don't freaking know what key you are freaking talking about. Freaking, freaking, freaking!" Keith said. "Gah!"

"It's alright," Eelee said. "I know! So as long as I know, all you have to do is listen."

Keith groaned. "Great."

El stood from the wall. "We'll go and fight. With honor."

"Honor?" Keith said. "Well, uh, alright, El, we fight with honor."

"And courage," El said.

"And courage," Keith said.

"And for justice great," El said.

"Yeah, El. For great justice," Keith said.

Eelee giggled. "You're always agreeing with her."

"Because she always has the right idea!" Keith said. "That's all."

"Alright then. Come on, Athnee, get up please," Eelee said. "We're going to have some adventure!"

"You already said that!" Keith said.

"And assured doom!" Eelee said.

"You already said that, too," Keith said.

"I know," Eelee said, smiling.

XXXX

So ends Chapter Two.


	3. 3: Where'd that stupid girl go?

And so the experimental fanfic continues…

Disclaimer: I do not own the Kingdom Hearts Franchise.

XXXX

"Boring, boring, boring," Eelee said. "Can't this little thing go any faster?" She sat at the edge of her seat, watching as stars passed by the ship's window.

"Maybe if you complain to it enough," Keith said.

"So, where are we going?" Athnee said.

"Nowhere really," Eelee said.

"Oh. Alright," Athnee said. She sat in her own seat, idly twiddling her thumbs.

El sat in her own seat. Her eyes, wide opened, focused out the window and her hand rested under chin. Yet she was as still and silent as if she had fallen asleep.

"A little quiet, eh El?" Keith said. "You might want to say something or we might freak out and think you're dead."

She turned her head, slowly, to him and smiled. "Oh. Hi. Not dead. Thinking."

"Deep thoughts?" Keith asked.

She nodded. "Athnee learn to fight soon. Needs to, I think."

"Yeah, we'll get to that when we're not on this stupid ship. It's too small to practice here," he said.

She nodded again, turned her head back to the window, and again looked as if she were asleep.

Eelee glanced about, squinting. "Are we landing?" She said.

"Did you set it to land?" said Keith.

"No," She said, shaking her head.

El pushed herself away from the wall, blinking. She had the smallest of frowns on her lips as she looked at Keith and Eelee. "We are crashing," El said.

Athnee scrunched herself into her seat, burying her head into her knees and shuddering. "What?!" said her muffled voice.

Eelee shook her head. "This isn't the best made thing in the world. Actually, to be blunt, it was made cheaply. I could tell."

"Why didn't you make the Council get us a better one…_before_ we got on it and maybe, oh I don't know, _before_ we started plummeting to our deaths because the Council is made up of a bunch of cheap bastards!" Keith said. "Huh? Wanna tell us why?"

"Come on, Keith." Eelee said. "These could be our last words to each other. Let's make them nice."

"Nice? Woman, I was born a bastard, I'm dying a bastard," Keith said.

Athnee whimpered, her knees shaking against her buried face. "I don't wanna die now."

El stood up, not shaking or shuddering, but she stood stiff and straight. She walked to Eelee and said, "Can keep from dying. All of us. But not save ship. But keep us not dead."

"Then do it! Take the controls!" Eelee said. "I personally don't care what happens to this ship. I just want to walk out of this thing intact."

Eelee took her shaking hand from the controls and, in turn, El put her hand on them.

Keith watched them. "Come on, El, let's do this. I just plain down don't feel like dying today, okay?"

The whole ship went quiet; outside the sky was a blur. There was the sound of a tap, tap as Eelee worked at the controls, never wavering, never moving her eyes from them.

Keith watched her quietly, his arms crossed. Athnee still kept her head buried in her knees and Eelee just sat, her head cocked slightly, watching El work.

Athnee didn't look out of the window; she didn't want to see anything as the ship fell. She wanted see nothing, she wanted to shudder and quaver and whimper but never, ever look out of that window where the sky passed too quickly. She didn't want to look at the people around her, who must have been doing better jobs at acting brave. No, Athnee just wanted to die quaking. She didn't care a bit if she died a coward with her eyes shut and body shaking. At the very least she wouldn't see death coming.

Sitting, shaking she felt herself jerked from her seat, forwards and into the back of Keith's seat, where she fell to the floor. She kept her eyes closed, tight, and scooted herself against the wall, determined to, if she had to feel herself dying, to at the very least not see it.

"We…alright? Nobody mangled?" She heard Keith say.

A hand rested on her shoulder, prodding her with a shake. "Come on. It's okay," Athnee heard Eelee say. Then Athnee opened her eyes and she saw Eelee, crouched in front of her. "We're alright. Just a little crash."

"The whole ship's totaled," Keith said. "But at least we're alive. Thanks to El, I guess."

El looked down at her feet but Athnee could see a smile on her lips.

"Well, look at our luck," Eelee said, standing. She stood by a window, looking out. "We landed in civilization."

Keith stood beside her, looking out the window himself. "Some strange town where we're probably going to be dragged into some dark alley and—"

"Or where we can replenish supplies and get you just a spot of healthy optimism," Eelee said.

Athnee stood from the floor herself, not shaking so bad now having realized that she wasn't dead quiet yet. She looked out the window and saw a city. A city without life, she saw because it was a barren city, with no people scuttling about corners and streets, no life at all. It didn't even really seem to be a city. More like a place where the buildings for a city were intact but someone had forgotten to add the people.

"Go," El said, gesturing to the door. "Leave. All of us. Now." El opened the door, stepped out, put her hands on her hips and waited to be followed.

They did, taking careful steps out of the ship and into the probably quietest of cities.

Athnee looked about; uneasy, sidling herself back towards the ship's door, holding her hands on the doorframe as if, at any sound and any break in the dreadful silence, she might run back into the ship and cower.

Everyone else took steps before her, tense, ready to spring at the slightest sound. With each step, nothing happened. Nothing jumped at her, nothing dragged her away. Athnee almost relaxed. El, Eelee and Keith still stayed tense, eying every dark spot, every shadow.

Keith put his mouth close to Athnee's ear and whispered, "Don't move."

Because just then Athnee noticed a funny thing about the shadows. These shadows didn't just flicker with the light as she had originally thought they did. These shadows moved towards them and across the cobblestone, closer to their feet. She froze.

Then the shadows stopped, just feet in front of them. Athnee closed her eyes. It was part of that plan of hers that if she was going to die, in the very least she not see herself die.

Everyone else stared. Eelee had her wand in hand, El and Keith had swords they held tightly, so tight their hands turned white and almost shook.

Athnee realizing that she wasn't dead, opened her eyes to see what was holding death up.

The shadows bounced upwards, one by one to reveal themselves as monsters.

. One of them was right there in front of Athnee, watching her with strange yellow eyes. She fell backwards, sprawling on the ground, kicking her feet in all directions and screaming every bit of the way.

"It's coming after me! Make it stop! Make it stop!" She said.

Keith jumped sideways and slashed the shadow in two. It disintegrated right there before her eyes.

"Dodge, woman!" Keith said.

"What!?" She said.

"Don't get hit!" He replied.

"We have to make a run for it!" Eelee said, panting. "As much as I love a good fight, these things just keep coming."

"Where?" Keith said.

"Anywhere safe. There's gotta be somewhere safe," Eelee said.

"El!" Keith yelled across the mob of shadows.

El jumped out of reach of one shadow, keeping her eyes on the monsters. But she did nod to Keith, giving him the slightest of signals that she could hear him.

"We're running on the count of five!" Keith said.

"One," Eelee said.

Athnee watched from the ground, frozen, doing a very bad job of dodging as one of the monsters became nothing but a shadow on the ground again. She watched that shadow sidle across the ground with her eyes wide and her mouth gaping.

"Two!" Keith said.

It stopped before her.

"Three!" El said.

Then jumped from shadow to a monster and stood before her.

"Four!" said Eelee.

The monster, at first only hopped towards Athnee. Athnee looked about wildly but everyone else was too absorbed in their own fights. She stared at the heartless, crawled backwards, whimpering, her throat tightening so closely and dryly that she couldn't make a scream. She felt blood rushing to her head and she knew, suddenly, that she was about to faint. As the monster shadow made one last hop before it was on her, she hopped from the ground with all her force, fighting the dizzy spell out of her head and ran in the farthest direction away from it.

"Five!" Keith said. "Come on, let's go! I'll grab Athnee!"

Keith looked behind him to see no Athnee. "Athnee!" Keith said. "Where the—where'd that stupid girl go?"

"She's gone?!" Eelee said. "Keith, I thought you were watching her!"

"I thought you were!" Keith said.

"Oh no," Eelee whispered. "It's too late. We have to get out of here."

"What about Athnee?" Keith said.

"It's too late," Eelee repeated. "Too late. The heartless probably have her."

"Run. She could've run," El said dodging one of the beasts. "Look for her later."

"Why!?" Keith said. "Why?"

"We're tired Keith," Eelee said. "I can barely cast another spell. And if I can't cast spells, these things will overtake me and eventually you."

"Keith. You are tired. You shake," El said.

"But I can't just leave someone—" Keith said.

"It'll be okay," Eelee said. "Now, let's run."

Both El and Eelee ran, the shadow monsters trailing behind them.

Keith, hesitating for only a second, ran in the utter opposite direction.

XXXX

Chapter 3 done and over.


	4. 4 The Worst of Times

The Worst of Times

This story has been left for the dead for two years because a.) I figured nobody had an interest in reading a fanic which unabashedly uses original characters and twists and changes canon so dramatically and b.) because my writing, while not bad, was rather juvenile. I was young and inexperienced. I still am, but not on the same level. From the start this fic has been experimental. I didn't expect to get even one response from anybody who neither knew me nor were related to me. However, recently an anonymous reviewer left a message urging me to continue. That seems to be all I needed to get my inspiration back so, after rereading my older chapters and getting a handle on the characters and concepts again, I immediately wrote this chapter. Thank you, anonymous reviewer. Even if only one person enjoys this, that's enough for me.

"Keith is so dense sometimes!" Eelee stomped her foot. "I told him to leave her! But, of course, he being who he is, he just _had _to go save poor Athnee, the damsel-in-distress. Ugh. If he really were the self-respecting bastard he makes himself out to be, he wouldn't be playing at being some knight in shining armor or something…"

"It is what he think he do. Should do," El said.

"Yeah, but what you think you should do isn't always what you really should be doing." She crossed her arms. "The only way this plan had a chance of working is if we actually stayed together. But, noooo, now the heartless can pick us off one by one. You know, as depressing as this thought is, do you think the Council is trying to kill us or something? First our crash-landing wonder of a ship, now this. I am going to have a long and serious talk with mom when I get back!"

"I doubt it. Sometimes their decisions bad. I mean, Council make bad decisions."

"Maybe it's just my delirious mind, El, but that was almost a grammatically correct sentence.

"I learn quickish."

"You mean quickly, not quickish. But, still, you are improving!" She smiled. "Look at me, getting all negative. I'm almost being worse than Keith! My, I never thought I'd see the day…it's not like we're going to die here, after all. I mean, we have faced heartless before and survived."

"But world didn't."

"Well, yeah, our worlds were destroyed last time we saw these nasty boogers but…but we can't be negative! Everything will be all right."

Yet Eelee had the distinct feeling everything was not all right.

About an hour or so before, the two girls had hold themselves up in this factory. Even as they slammed and locked the front doors, they could see the shadows along the ground, inching forward. They hoped the door would hold and it seemed they were right.

And now there was only a door separating them from the monsters. She could just see what they looked like out there, waiting for the door to open, so they could pounce.

Everyone knew what happened after that.

She put her hand over her heart, as if protecting it.

Trying to defend themselves was useless. As they had learned earlier, their weapons didn't work. Instead, they would only slide harmlessly through the shadows. And Eelee's magic might as well been cheap parlor tricks for all the god it did. It was a death trap, it really was, and they were the rats caught in it.

The worst part wasn't just the waiting, but not knowing whether Athnee was alive (probably not, Eelee surmised) or whether Keith would be able to find them again.

She sat down beside El and sighed.

"I wish I had your patience."

"Mm," was El's only response.

X

When launching into a head-long run with shadows practically nipping at your heels, you simply don't think of where you're running. So long as where you are going doesn't have those…monsters, you keep on.

This was how Athnee found herself in a very dark place. It could have been an alley (of course she hadn't bothered paying enough attention before to know) or somewhere else.

She rested against a wall, her breath ragged and throat dry. Her head was spinning round and round and her heart beating faster than she ran.

Nothing seemed to be here, though. There was no sound but the dripping of water somewhere in the distance.

She scrunched herself into a small ball, closed her eyes and waited. Somewhere in her she knew what would inevitably happen: the heartless would come, as quiet as shadows can be, and consume her whole, bit by bit. Daring not to cry, for she feared any noise would only bring them upon her faster, she simply listened to her own breathing. There was something comfortable about hearing her own breath, wheezing in and out, because at the very least it meant she was alive.

Perhaps it was all useless. They would have her in the end anyway.

Despite her best efforts, she ended up crying anyway. Soon enough, she gave up even trying to dam the tears, and gave into sobbing.

Until something brushed across her feet. She froze, her sobbing stopped but the tears still wet on her face. Was it a mouse…?

And again.

And then it brushed against her chest, where her heart was. Wildly, she threw herself to the side and buried her head in her arms. All the while she was yelling and screaming and carrying on like a banshee.

Almost as if on cue with the chaos, a flash of light lit everything around her.

She waited for the inevitable to come, for her heart to be horribly ripped from her chest. After a few moments, when nothing happened, she peaked through her hands.

Her eyes met only darkness. Wanting to be sure nothing was there; she fumbled around but felt nothing.

She sucked her breath in, unsure whether she had just avoided death or not. Again she sat against the wall. But how close she had been to death's door. How ever did she manage to pull away?

Before she could become too comfortable, however, something grabbed her by her arm and yanked her up. She was glad it was so dark; otherwise, she surely would be able to see another heartless with its claws on her, reaching already for her trembling heart.

As it pulled her out of the alley, she only barely resisted. Just do it quick, she thought.

When they were in the light, however, she realized this was not a heartless. It was a man. Certainly, he was nobody she knew.

Even though he dragged her along, he ran with incredible speed. When she proved to be too slow to keep up, he simply lugged her on his back and kept going. She wrapped her hands around his neck and buried her face in his back.

Well, this was sort of weird. But, then again, what hadn't been weird for her lately?

When they arrived at a building, he kicked the door in, tossed her inside and slammed it shut. She heard the rattle of a lock.

She shook to her very core and wanted to scream again, but something told her it would be useless.

As the man turned, she was shocked to see how severe his face was. His eyes were the eyes of a man who had seen too much, constantly narrowed and set deep in his thin face.

"Who are you?" He said.

"Athnee, sir." She stood, brushed herself off and tried to steady her legs. For some reason, she felt dizzy. "What do you want?"

"How did you do that?"

"Huh? What? What did I do?"

He took a step forward and leaned into her face. "Don't play games."

"But—you're confusing me."

"Just tell me how you did that thing in the alley."

"Erm…you mean cry?"

"No," he said slowly.

"That flash of light or whatever. It made the heartless completely disappear. How did you do that!?"

"I did that!? Are you sure?"

"You were the only one there."

"I really don't know." He was standing so close she could smell his breath. She stepped back. "How can I know!? I was just screaming."

"I heard."

"And crying and all and I swore I was going to die. And then that flash of light appeared from…well, I don't know."

"Hmph." The man stood straight. "You sure?"

"Yes! Of course I'm sure! Who are you anyway?" She said, feeling herself gain unusual courage. "Why do you think you can just question me like this?"

"_You_ can call me Leon. And, for your information, it's my duty to watch any…suspicious activity. Random bursts of lights from crying little girls that somehow destroy heartless counts."

As he walked past her, he said over his shoulder, "Seeing as how you acted earlier, I'm assuming you won't survive long out there. I advise you to stay here. This was a hotel once. There are plenty of rooms. Take your pick."

"Wait! Hold on! Where am I?"

"Traverse Town." With that, he went into a room and locked the door behind him.

"Oh…" but knowing the name of the town didn't help. Of course he wouldn't answer any of the thousands of questions in her head. He seemed to be a tight-lipped sort of person.

With a sigh, she opened one of the hotel's many doors. Inside was a typical hotel room. It wasn't until Athnee really started looking that she saw a young woman, seated on the bed, brushing her long hair.

"I heard the whole thing," She said. "Please, don't mind Leon." She set the brush down. "He's under a lot of…stress. So, I suppose, we'll be stuck here together."

What struck Athnee most was the woman's wonderful smile, so genuine, kind and friendly. It was much different than the glares everyone else always gave her. For the first time, she felt an oddly familiar feeling: the feeling of being at home.

"You must already know my name," Athnee said. "But I don't know yours. So, what is it?"

"Aerith." There was a pause. "So…how are you, Athnee? Not too injured, I hope. I heard a little of your ordeal from when you were talking a second ago."

"Yeah, it was really scary." Athnee plopped down on the floor. It was strange, but she felt she could talk to this woman forever if she wanted. "I still don't understand…and to think I survived it! I don't know how. I just did."

"You know, our world was destroyed as well." Aerith's eyes turned distant. "Leon can't forgive himself for it." She sighed.

"It's awful what these…monsters are doing."

"Do you know who these monsters are?"

"Evil."

"Maybe," Aerith said. "But they weren't always so. Once they were people, too. But then they lost their hearts…"

"Oh my god," Athnee managed. "Oh my god! You mean…those poor things! I feel so bad for them."

"Yes, it is awful. We survivors have to do our best, I suppose. But, enough of that. Do you live here?"

"No."

"You're a survivor then." Her voice was thick.

"I came here with others like me. Three others, actually. I don't know where they are, though…they're the ones who are good at this sort of stuff."

"I only came with two others. You've already met Leon, but there is another one, Yuffie. I don't know where she is now. She goes wherever she wants, whenever…to be honest, it worries me to death, but what can I do? At least we haven't been separated yet. I'm so sorry about your friends, though. It must be hard…"

"I don't know what I'm going to do…" she fought off the tears.

"It will be all right," Aerith said. "No matter how…prickly…Leon seems, he has a good heart. He can help you."

"I hope so," said Athnee as she made her way towards the door. All of a sudden, a weariness weighed on her shoulders and it seemed as though she were tired right down to her bones.

Aerith watched her leave, frowning softly.

XXX

No matter how many times Keith hacked and slashed at the damn heartless, it never did any good. The weapon simply went through them, as if the monsters were made out of vapor or something.

When that became obvious, he tried to avoid them instead. At every point he encountered them, he'd dodge and run like hell.

He had been following signs of where Athnee was…had been, if she were dead. It was a possibility. Somehow, though, the thought made him frown. It would seriously suck if they lost the newb in such an inglorious way before they even had the chance to teach her anything.

The trail seemed to lead into an alley…a very dark alley.

Great. Just the place a stupid newbie could be killed in.

Taking a flashlight from his pocket, he pointed it into the darkness. What was revealed was a normal alley. He examined the ground.

By one wall, the dirt and trash on the cement was disheveled in a way that made him think someone had quickly jumped to the side. It was as if there had been fight there or something.

If there had been one…aw, hell. The newbie must've been dead. Well, even heartless left bodies. Yet even as he searched with a sinking heart, he found no empty husk of what had once been Athnee. Indeed, he found something ever more surprising: heavy boot prints. It would be barely noticeable at the best of times but, guided only by his flashlight, it was a miracle he found them at all. Each print spread far apart, he knew whoever made them must have been in a hurry to get out.

And they certainly weren't Athnee's feet. Her feet were way too cute and dainty. There was also the possibility that Athnee, dead or alive, had been carried away.

He began following the trail, wherever it might lead.

On that note, so ends Chapter four.

And again, I would like to thank the anonymous reviewer who inspired me to resurrect this fic. See, reviews DO matter and chapter five is already in the works. ;)


	5. Where everyone is still seperated

Chapter five Where everyone is still separated…

The experiment continues.

Athnee stared at the ceiling for the same reasons people usually do such a thing: because she was bored, because she was depressed, because she was alone. When was the last time she felt this way? Oh, right, when she stood on the void of what had once been home, when she woke up and remembered nothing.

Ever since that day life had been sucker-punching her in the face again and again. Well, at least I have a very warm bed, she thought as she snuggled up with a pillow and gave her eyes a rest.

She had thought things would start looking up when she met her new friends, but it didn't. Eelee seemed nice enough and El wouldn't be so bad if she could actually speak correctly, but Keith...

She had been trying to decide why Keith was so mean. Ever since she arrived it was nothing but insults about how weak and helpless she was. He called her the "resident stupid distressed chick" and ignored her half the time. Just on the gummi ship he had called her at least fifteen unrepeatable insults. Yes, she had counted.

In a way she wanted him to like her, yet he was always so mean, it seemed to be impossibility…

The door flew open.

"Hey! Dumb girl! In here?"

She sat up right away. "Keith?"

"Who else?"

He stood in the doorway looking disheveled, his hair a mop, the knees on his pants torn. All around, he looked as if he was having a very bad day. And it's all my fault, Athnee thought.

"You look like crap," he said.

"Huh?" was all she managed.

"Damn. There's heartless out there who're prettier than you."

"What do you mean?"  
"Look in the mirror."

When she saw her reflection in the mirror on the wall across from the bed, she cringed. Her hair had dried into stringy clumps from all the sweating she had done earlier. Dust colored her clothing and dirt clumped her limbs.

"I had no idea," she said, fiddling with her thumbs. "I didn't know I was so ugly…"

He shrugged. "Yeah, well, somebody has to be plain-looking around here. And seeing as how I'm the damn-hot bad-boy…you know, can't have people competing with my sex appeal."

"You're-you're not sexy! You're a bad-looking boy with an attitude pro—" She lost the courage to continue and began to blush, fiddling more with her thumbs, and trying to keep her gaze concentrated down rather than on him.

"What were you about to say, you stupid girl?!"  
"…nothing…"

"Yeah, I was hearing a whole lot of something out of you. Not sexy? Me? Fine! Whatever! You're just stupid and plain-looking anyway. What would you know about being as damn fine as I am? Damn. Fine."

"...why are you so mean to me all the time? What did I do? All I did was come here. I didn't ask for it. I lost my home too! We should be friends!"

"So we should be friends just because we both came from the same crap-ass background, is that it?"

"No! We should try to be friends because we're stuck together for the rest of this stupid trip whether you-you like it or NOT. Because we're all alone and sad and could die and I don't even know if I had friends before everything was destroyed and I then we got separated and I thought I had lost my only chance at ever having friends again and—and—" Her words became sobbing mush as she laid her face onto her knees. Her hands clenched her hair tightly but did not pull. Rather she simply needed somewhere to put them.

"Hey! You stop that weak stuff!" He said. "I didn't come here for it and I'm not dealing with it."

Yet he might as well not have said anything at all, for she only cried harder.

He kicked the wall. "I should have known! I was just waiting for this sort of stuff. I catch Eelee doing this all the time. Yeah. She used to always start crying and all that and I'd just be like 'what the hell are you crying for? I've gone through the same stuff you have but I ain't tearing up!' I think I've figured it out, though. I think I know what you two girls are trying to pull."

At this, she very slowly brought her tears to a stop, wiped gently her eyes and left wet cheeks. She didn't lift her head from her knees, however, and only listened.

"You chicks are trying to seduce me."

"Huh?"

"Yeah, I know now. You start bawling like that as if you're sad but what you really mean is 'hey, you're the only boy! Yay! Look how vulnerable and stuff I am! Come comfort me. Hee hee' or something. And then you'd strike on poor, unsuspecting me and that would suck. So you're not sad. You're just manipulative females. But you know what, sister? I didn't bite for Eelee and I'm not biting for you."

Athnee stayed very still and quiet, trying to process Keith's non-logic before bursting. "WHAT!?!?! You think you're so hot that we fake crying to seduce you?"

"Hey, it's stupid, but I'm not the one who's doing it."

"Did you ever consider that we really are sad?"

"I know you aren't."

"Haven't you cried at least once since—"

"NO! Because I'm tougher than that and, shockingly, so are you. That's how I know you're just trying to seduce me, which, let me say right now, won't work."

"I'm not seducing you, though."

"So you're really that weak?"

"I'm not weak." She replied.

He snorted.

"How did you get in here, anyway?" She asked.

"I flew in."

"Seriously."

He studied her, then shrugged. "Some cute girl let me in."

"Aerith?"

"Who? No. She's got short black hair, real skinny and…Yuffie, that's her name. Yeah, she's cute."

"She let you in? With all the heartless around?"  
"Sure she did."

"Why?"

"Heartless aren't known for knocking."

"So you knock and they just let you in?"

"Oh no! What will they do when heartless do learn how to knock? We're doomed!" He laughed.

For the first time since the conversations started, he stepped out of the doorframe and into the room.

"So," he said. "Since when did you become our very own walking bomb?"

She blinked. "Wha--?"

"Yeah, you know, that exploding thing you did back in the alley or something. Does 'Booom! Bam! Kablam' and bright light strike any bells?"

"I don't know."

"Hey, me neither. I only got it second-hand from someone who heard it from someone else."

He crossed his arms and leaned over her. She jerked backwards.

"So, um, you sure you're not hiding anything. The big guy in leather thought you were."

"You mean Leon."

"Quit stalling! What was up with the exploding? You got a bomb in your pants or something?"

Despite her best efforts, Athnee giggled. "A heartless-destroying bomb in my pants…that's really silly, Keith."

"Okay, okay. You got me. Figure of speech. Seriously, what's up?"

"I don't know. It just happened."

"Things like that don't _just _happen."

"It did this time. I mean, maybe there's more to it than that…but that's all I know."

"First time this has happened?"

Athnee nodded.

"If you don't know anything then I don't care. Let the Council waste their asses on figuring it out."

With that he laid on the bed, put his arms under his head and begun to snore.

Athnee could only shake her head and sigh. "You're sort of lazy," she said.

"Zip it. A damn sexy god is getting some sleep."

XXX

At first, the thudding on the door was a distant, frightening noise to Eelee. She snapped out of dozing and slapped El's arm.

El grunted and blinked away the sleep. "Yes?"

"Listen."

Into the silence they listened closely until they heard the knock again and…faint voices. Was it a trick? They listened more intently.

"Do heartless talk?" Eelee whispered.

"I know none talking."

There was knocking again.

Eelee braced her ear to the door and said, "Anyone there? If you're a heartless don't bother answering."

"Um…I'm not a heartless."

"Brilliant!" And she unfastened the door, opening up to reveal a boy with brown hair and bright blue eyes. On one side was a duck, the other a dog.

There was really nothing else to say.

Hah, she thought, I've seen weirder working with mom at the council.

"Quick, get in." She ushered.

The three stumbled in and she shut the door behind them, the locks clicking in place.

She turned.

"Well, hello there. So, who are you? I do so hope you're not a heartless in disguise or anything. That would be no good. By the way, I'm Eelee; a name which, incidentally, spells the exact same thing backwards and forwards." She grinned.

"I'm Sora," the boy said. "And these are Donald and Goofy."

"Pleasure," Eelee said.

"We haven't seen another person alive around here," Goofy said.

"Now you have!" she said.

Sora spoke up. "Have you seen my friends at all? One's a really pretty girl."

"How pretty? Because if she's gorgeous, well, bud, you just might be looking for me."

"Uhh. Oh. Well, no." He didn't quite know how to respond to that.

"Gee, didn't you say she had red hair and blue eyes, Sora?" said Goofy.

She tapped her chin. "Nope. I haven't seen anyone like that. Who's the other one?"

"Well, he's a guy. He has white hair."

"White hair? How old is he anyway?!"

"My age."

"Oh, so he's just an unnaturally light blond, is he?"

"No, his hair's just white."

"…is that on account of some sort of disease or—"

"If Sora says it's white hair, it's white!" Donald said. Actually, to say Donald or Goofy said anything was misleading. Sure, she could make out the words, but they had such thick—accents, was that the word for it?—they was sort of difficult to understand.

"Hold up. I think your fowl just tried saying something but I didn't quite catch that. Run it by me again."

"FOWL!? I'm a DUUUUUUUUUCK!!! DUUUUUCK!!" And then what followed was only what could be called a long, angry quack.

"Uh…no offense, you poor duck."

"Just call him Donald," said Goofy.

"Well, Donald, have you seen any of my missing friends? One's a very foolish boy with dark blond hair, brown eyes and the others a girl with brown hair, brown eyes. The boy's sort of tall and lanky, too. The girl's just a twig."

"I haven't seen anyone like that."

"I guess we'll just have to keep our eyes peeled for each other's friends, right?" she said.

Over in the corner was rustling. Everyone turned just as El came forward, rubbing her eyes.

"Who they?"

"Oh, El! Hi! Look, we have company. This is Sora and that's Donald and Goofy. They talk just as strangely as you do!"

"Whaaaat?" Donald screamed.

"Come on, Donald. I don't think she meant it as badly as you're taking it," Sora said.

"Of course I didn't! You're adorable!" Eelee patted him on the head, which didn't help any, and only made Donald all the angrier.

"She sorry and apologize. Not always smart when come—when it come to people other. Other people." El struggled through each word, trying to make her sentences more proper than usual so she didn't look too stupid in front of the newcomers.

"Well, is this just beat up Eelee day or what?" Eelee said. "Anyway, we're all sort of stuck here together on account of a very bad case of heartless."

"Stuck? We're not stuck. Sora has a keyblade." Goofy said, but the way he said stuck made it come out sounding like 'stuyuck'.

"You have a keyblade!" Eelee clapped her hands together and jumped up and down. "I am so happy I could just cry! You hear that, El? That's just what the Council sent us here for!"

"Hm." El inclined her head.

Sora took a step back. There was something about her enthusiasm that was just a bit much for him.

"Let's see it then!" She said.

After a brief hesitation (after all, something about her enthusiasm was a bit much for him), he called it into his hand from the thin air and held it aloft. It glistened in the dim factory lights.

"It's beautiful! Can I have it? Hold it?" But, too late, before Sora could even answer, she leapt for it.

He yanked it out the way just in time to have her skid on the floor.

"Must hurt," said El.

Eelee bounced up, brushing off her dress.

"What are you trying to do?" Sora asked, not exactly unkindly. He was just very surprised.

"Well, if you hadn't moved it, I was going to have a look at it," she said. "Is that a crime? Of course not."

"Only Sora can wield it," Said Goofy. "Others can't."

"Yes, well, I need it, whether I can wield it or not. Otherwise, I can't go home. I'll tell you what, Sora, let's see if you're man enough to keep it." She grinned. "El here just so happens to be a fantastic warrior. I, personally, don't think you are." She knew, of course, that he would have to be in order to get through all those heartless in the first place. "So let's see who gets the keyblade. With no help from your friends, just one-on-one with my awesome girl. Do you think you're up for it?"

"I'm not fighting anybody needlessly." Sora laughed nervously.

"Not needlessly. Because, you see, I'm going to probably have to end up attacking you anyway. I mean, I wouldn't' kill you. Just knock you out. I just really, really need that sword. I can't go home without it! Why, if I don't get it, mommy will disown me (again…)! So, please, be understanding of my predicament. Look, if you're good enough you will beat El. Then you'll be on your merry little way with your merry little stick while I sit here and rot…otherwise, well, maybe it just wasn't meant for you."

"No!" Sora said and Donald echoed the sentiment. "I'll just leave and not fight you or anyone at all. I don't want to fight if I don't have to."

She rolled her eyes and tried to formulate a new approach in her mind. "We work for the Council. If you don't know they're very powerful and could easily find your friends if only you help us out. How about you come with us, Sora? I mean, after we locate our friends, that is. Are your friends lost here by any chance?"

"I don't know where they're lost." He bowed his head, looking very sad. "I don't think it's here…They could be anywhere."

Eelee frowned. "I sympathize. I worry about my friends a little…too…But, I mustn't let that get me down! No, no! So, Sora, do we have a deal? We need your help taking the heartless down, anyways, and you need the Council to find you buddies! By the way, is that pretty girl of yours a love-interest or something? I adore love stories!"

"No, no, we're just friends!" Sora waved his hands in front of him, blushing. Goofy and Donald seemed a bit confused by his reaction.

Eelee wasn't, and smiled. "Suuuure. But, you know, who am I to say? Anyway, what's your answer?"

"If they really can help me, then I guess I can help you…but I don't want to give my keyblade up."

Eelee's smiled strained. "I—I hate to say this but I really don't know what they're going to make you do and whether they want you to give the keyblade up or not…All I know is that they need it for something."

"Sora has another responsibility," Goofy said. "We need to find King Mickey."

"We could help you locate them too. Look, we really need your help. Could you find it somewhere in your heart to help us girls out? I just know our friends are here and hopefully alive, but those stupid heartless! Nothing we do works against them."

Sora stared at his keyblade. "But, I've been doing just fine."

"All because you wield a keyblade. And since you wield a keyblade it is your responsibility to help the poor, needy and weak, or otherwise, me! Come on, be noble and brave and awesome!"

"That's not what the keyblade is for!" Donald said. "He isn't some knight!"

She pouted. "Come on, chicken, you're really cramping my style. If I want to be a damsel-in-distress then I need a big, strong hero man! Or, you know, you." She giggled at Sora.

Donald's eye twitched at the word chicken, and he would have started screaming if Goofy hadn't clamped a hand over his beak until he calmed down.

"I-I'll help you," Sora said. "But only because I would feel bad if I left you stuck here."

"Oo! What a noble, wonderful man you are! Keith really could learn something from you…" She frowned, hoping against all that he was still alive to learn the lesson.

"Sora," El said, quietly at first. "I like spar. Like to spar. One against one."

"I'm not fighting anyone if I don't have to."

"No, no," Eelee said. "She just wants to hone her skills, is all. And, really, I think she just wants to see who's better, you or her. Her combat skills are a point of tender pride for her. And, no worries, this isn't to see who gets the keyblade. It's just for kicks."

"Nobody will get hurt?"

"Not unless you hurt them."

"All right."

Donald glared, looking uneasy, as he did not quite trust either of the girls. "Be careful," he said, and held a wand ready in his hands, just in case.

El stretched her arms, then legs, shook her shoulders and tossed Sora a pipe on the ground, keeping another for herself. "So we equal."

"Um…okay." And he poofed the keyblade back into the air it had come from, now holding the pipe steady in its place.

Now they faced each other off, Eelee and the rest to the side.

"Go El!" Eelee screamed, jumping up and down like a cheerleader.

El leapt, quick and powerful as a cat, and skulked forward a little off to Sora's left side. The moment she came close, he swung, but she crouched low and rolled in front of him, the pipe leaving only a whizzing sound in the air.

Up again she was, and with her she tried slamming her pipe right into the bottom of his chin. But he, too, was quick and rolled his head to the left. As she readied for another blow, he slid to her side and swung. Yet he found his pipe only slap noisily against hers.

They held there in uneasy tension, waiting for the other's arms to give out. After a whole moment, El pushed fiercely once, bending his wrists and sending him retreating and circling behind her. He swung low and, before she could block, caught her in her abdomen.

"A winner is Sora!" Eelee said. "I have to say, that's one of the bigger disappointments of my life. I thought you said you were good, El!"

El tossed her pipe aside. "You is better," she said, but, from the way her voice cracked, it was obvious the fact was difficult to admit. "You quick, agile, and strong and bam my side." She indicated where the bruise was. "You have keyblade reason. Reason you have keyblade. That correct sentence? Yes?"

"I guess you can't win every contest," Eelee said but, still, she sighed. "Seriously, though, it's a little disconcerting. I was counting on you for protection, El!"  
"He good. Is good," she said insistently. "Nothing I do but do harder train for honor. _My honor_. Then I get good and beat you." There was a competitive shine in her eyes that made Sora smile uneasily.

"But, I mean, you did pretty good, too," He said. "When you first started out I wasn't really sure I would be able to take you…"

El took the compliment with a nod, although she still frowned.

"I never liked sharp weapons," said Goofy. "Defense is the best offense." He indicated his shield.

"Yes, but it does seem to be a lot of work," Eelee said. "Magic is just so much easier and you get a lot more out of it for less work."

El smiled softly. "Be wimp to use. Wimp to use magic." She laughed.

"Magic IS more useful," Donald said.

XXXX

So ends Ch. 5.


	6. 6: Go Fish

Ch. 6 Athnee Fails at Life

The question arises: Will Athnee and Keith end up as a couple? Or is he meant for someone else? Or perhaps there'll be no romance at all! Read and find out!

Actually, to be completely honest, I have no idea who will end up with who. Other than the canon pairing SoraXKairi, no pairings are set in stone. Really, I'm discovering stuff about this story at the same time the readers are!

XXXX

"We have to be quiet," Yuffie said as she gently opened the door and indicated inside.

He peeked in.

"That's the new addition?" Leon said "We're accumulating hobos left and right."

There on the bed was Keith snoring and beside him a good ways away on the same bed was Athnee sleeping peacefully.

"Aww! Isn't that cute," she said.

"Did you find out who he is? Or she, for that matter?"

"He said his name's Keith. And Aerith said the girl's Athnee. By the way, the boy said he would give me his number if he had a phone. Wanna know what else he said? He said if there weren't so many heartless around, he'd take me out." She giggled again, this time a little louder, which earned her a hard look from Leon.

"Where did they come from?"

"I don't know."

"Well, we better find out. What the girl did in the alley…well, let's just say it makes me wonder."

"How about you ask them?"

"I will. Later." He slinked away from the doorway. Then, as if something suddenly occurred to him, he said, "You better believe I'll be getting some answers."

Yuffie sighed and closed the door as quietly as she could. "Not everyone's a threat. You're so paranoid sometimes…I seriously worry you're going to pop a vein or something."

The look he gave her was pointed and long. "No, not everything is a threat but enough things are that it's simply safer to assume it is."

"Like I said. Paranoid."

"What do you want me to be? Careless? Look, Yuffie, _I'm_ going to get us out of this. _I'm_ going to protect us. And I can't afford to let anything get in the way of that. When the girl and boy wake up, find out where the hell they come from."

She hated when he spoke like that. The way his voice rose, how heavy his tone became, all harkened to some grave pain within him; a pain that started with their world's destruction. She knew how guilty he felt sometimes and knew all too well how absurd it was. There was nothing anyone could have done to stop the heartless., not even him"You're going to have to get over this one day, you grouch," she said. "Or it's going to eat you alive."

"It's not your business. Stay out."

"But, Squall! You—"

"Don't you dare call me that."

"…I just think its silly how you do this to yourself."

"Does it matter? No. Then don't bug me about it, all right?"

Yuffie put her hands on her hips, thinking. "You wanna know what, Leon?"

"Yeah?"

"I, as the awesome ninja I am, will cheer you up!"

"No, o god, no. I haven't recovered from the last time."

She jumped towards him, grabbing hold of his arm and laughing. She tugged. "C'mon! We can go play a game. Anything to beat the emo out of our poor little Leon!"

"Game? Like what?"

"…umm…yeah. That's the problem. There's not much to do around here. Hey! Let's play cards."

"No."

"Why not!?"

"Because I'm sick of cards."

"You're just mad because I use my mad ninja-superiority to beat you. Every. Single. Time."

"Cheating at Go-fish isn't ninja. It's just stupid."

"There you go again, Mr. blatant negativity. But I'm not swayed! I'll bring you over to the side of bunnies and happiness if it's the last thing I do."

He couldn't help to smile a little. "It probably will be the last thing you do."

"There's that smile I—hey! Now you're frowning again! Whatever. I'll be back. Seriously, I have to be back. There's not enough room in this place."

She skipped off, leaving him walking slowly behind.

In the room, Athnee sat and yawned, wiping sleep from her eyes. She heard Keith snoring beside her.

She deliberated on whether to wake him or not. He needed all the sleep he could get, after all.

Slowly, she hopped from the bed only to loudly collide with the dresser.

"What the--!?" she heard Keith say.

She turned to see him staring back at her, wide awake.

"Did you wake me up? Man, why can't you let me sleep, dumb girl?" He buried his head in a pillow. "I was having the most awesome crazy dream," said his muffled voice.

"About what?"

"What else? About girls ten times hotter than you."

"You're so mean."

"Thank you, Captain Obvious. Now please get yourself out of my SLEEPING AREA. I'm freaking tired."

She sort of just stood there, knowing that she should leave, but feeling too angry to even budge. "Look, I'm sorry for waking you up but you're being the bigger jerk here. So, apologize or something…because what you said was sort of sharp…"

He unburied his head from the pillow very slowly, glared and said, "Oh, I'm sooo sorry."

Then he threw the pillow at her. It hit. She held it in her hands, sort of shocked.

He turned towards the wall, arms crossed, eyes closed.

"You're really imposs—" she started to say.

"Woman, I am SLEEPING."

Athnee sighed and left, figuring it was too much trouble to bother herself over Keith anymore. Obviously, this was just how he was going to be whether she liked it or not, so she might as well get used to it.

She wished there were nicer people around. Really, everyone was so mean and all…

Down the hall with many doors on either side, she heard someone scream "Athnee!"

It was Yuffie, running up behind her.

"Hi, Athnee. You know who I am, right?"  
"Yeah, you're Yuffie. I've heard about you. So you know about me?"

"Yep. Leon's told me all about you. Even your little trick in the alley."

Her face fell. "Oh. I guess everyone knows about that now."

"Pretty much. Hey, it's almost legendary now. Well, legendary for causing Leon the biggest headache of his life. He just hates it when things like this happen."

"Like what?"

"Like…like things he doesn't really understand. They just make him emo and he goes into 'It's a threat! Kill it!' mode. Not that he'd kill you."

"I didn't mean to cause so much trouble."

"Nah. It's all right. We're pretty much in a bunch of trouble anyway. Why not add a little more?" She paused. "Anyway, Athnee, that's not why I'm here. I actually need to know something."

"Like what?"

"Like where you come from. You and Keith and any other friends you must be here for some reason."

They stopped walking side by side, Yuffie leaning against a wall and Athnee simply standing in the middle of the hall, looking confused.

"Actually, I don't really know…they call it the Council or something."

"You don't know anything, do you?"

"No. I'm what you call 'out of the loop'. People don't even bother telling me important bits of information. They just ferry me along wherever they want me."

"So, who would know?"

"Keith would but I wouldn't wake him up or he'll throw stuff at you," Athnee said. "If my other friends were here, they could tell you. They know a lot more than I do. And they don't throw stuff. Because they're not jerks." She huffed a bit, remember the pillow Keith had thrown at her. Not that he'd care how angry she was. Jerk.

"I guess I'll wait then…even though my dodging skills are way superior."

"Well, I hope they are. Because he's really good at throwing stuff. Hey, where is Leon, anyway?"

"He went out hours ago."

"To do what?"

"To find something," said Yuffie, and, with that she began to skip away. "Don't worry. I'll properly interrogate Mr. Keith later. I'll even bring some hot iron pincers."

"For what!?"

Yuffie laughed. "To do interrogation stuff, that's what!"

Later that evening, after Athnee, out of having nothing better to do, had explored every room in the hotel, she lazed about and played cards with Aerith.

And Aerith won. Every. Single. Time.

"Don't worry, Athnee. I'm sure last time was simply a fluke. Would you like to go again?" Aerith would say, every single time. And Athnee would relent, until, finally,

"…no, thanks," Athnee said.

"No, no, I swear I'll try to play worse."

And Athnee still lost. Horribly. Two more times.

"I think I'm done."

"I'm very sorry."

"It's…all right. I'm just having an off-day." Actually, like most things, Athnee just sucked at cards, and being beaten again and again was a sure-fire way to break her fragile confidence further.

I really wish I weren't so awful at everything I tried, she thought. Well, at the very least, she was apparently a walking bomb. That was always fun.

She sighed.

It was very late in the evening and Leon had still not returned. Athnee began to fear for his safety and wonder if he had been eaten alive or something…she shivered the more she thought about it until she couldn't stand it any longer.

"Is Leon all right?!"

"Hmm?" Yuffie said. "Oh, hi, Athnee. What did you say?"

"Is Leon okay?"

She frowned. "He's been gone for long periods like this before. He'll be fine. He's a tough guy. He'll be back." There was something uncertain about the words that didn't make Athnee feel any more soothed.

"Is your friend awake," Yuffie said, changing the topic.

"No…he's still asleep." She pouted. "He really should be awake. I mean, who can sleep this long!?"

"Obviously, he can." She shrugged. "Ah well, can't sleep forever, can he? Don't worry, when he wakes up, I'll pump him for all the information he's got!"

"You keep saying that," Athnee said. "And it never ceases to scare me."

"I know!"

XXX

Short chapter, nothing significant really happens, but it is gearing up for something important.


End file.
